|
|
| I didn't take this pic (69224) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > BusChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
I didn't take this pic |
|
|
Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Sat Sep 8 15:31:55 2007, in response to Kicking it old school--bus pics from the 80s and 90s, posted by FYBklyn1959 on Wed Aug 22 17:15:26 2007.  It was taken years before I even set foot in L. A. I believe the photographer is a former RTD/MTA driver and mechanic named Tom Helliwell (if not, and if the actual photographer is reading this, please post or email me to set the record straight!) I included in this thread b/c this bus has personal importance to me, as it happens to be the very last GM Old Look I ever rode! It was in the spring of 1981--I was catching my usual line 871 (now line 42) tripper (BR 10) to school and work at USC, and 2167 showed up. It was a 1954 TDH-4801 originally ordered by Metropolitian Coach Lines (I think), which became (along with Los Angeles Transit Lines), LA Metropolitian Transit Authority (not to be confused with today's Metropolitian Transportation Authority) in 1958, which became SCRTD in 1964. Anyway, this bus had been in Division 18 since I moved to LA in 1976, but had transferred to Division 5 (which ran the 871) along with other buses, since D5 was short buses due to the Grumman crisis. D18 was able to give up buses, as they were the first division to get the new RTS-04s in December 1980. If the Grummans hadn't taken their brief vacation, the Old Looks probably would've been all gone by that time, but they hung around until mid-year, when all the RTS were in, and the Grummans were starting to return. This pic was apparently taken at the South Bay Center in Redondo Beach, which was remade in 1985 into the South Bay Galleria. This l/o zone was on the west side of Hawthorne Blvd, a few blocks south of Artesia. I think there was a movie theatre at the zone there. By the early 80s, there was the one screen by the bus zone, then 2 more further back, then a 4th one way in the back near the BNSF ROW. Of course now, those are long gone (they built a Ralph's GIANT supermarket there), and there is a multi-screen theatre inside the Galleria proper, I think on the west side near the current bus zone off Artesia. Oh the route was the 104, which I think was an ex-Inglewood City Lines route, a small company that RTD took over in the late 60s or early 70s. Eventually, that route was folded into RTD line 10, which started at East Adams Blvd and Central Ave, then went via Adams, Normandie Ave, West 48th St (which was the route of the LARy 9 line, only that line continued east of Normandie in a private ROW to Broadway or Main St, I think), then to Crenshaw, then meandered in the Hyde Park area, past Daniel Freeman Hospital, then everal streets in Inglewood, then ended up on Prarie Ave to Artesia, then on to South Bay Center. I rode this route on several occasions in the early 80s. The 10 became the 41 in June of 1981, as part of RTD's massive route restructuring. Eventually, the Prairie Ave segment became today's line 211, the rest of the route kinda disappeared (the Adams, Normandie and Crenshaw portions were covered by other routes, and the 48th St part went away, forcing those patrons to use the 105 on Vernon or the 108 on Slauson). |
|
|
|